Kiss critics goodbye

Bears declare themselves in the mix for Super Bowl

Their thrashing of NFC heavyweight Carolina transformed them from the kid eating Thanksgiving dinner at the card table in the basement to a seat in the dining room, chowing down with the big boys.

But though few took them seriously before, pawning their division lead in the victory-challenged NFC North as amusing, the perception within the Bears' locker room hasn't changed one bit.

"I've been talking about the Super Bowl since I got to this team," said receiver Muhsin Muhammad, who signed last March as a free agent. "It's a mentality to believe you're the best, and that starts in training camp. This team has the characteristics of a championship team. Do we win a Super Bowl? That remains to be seen. But we believe that we can."

As far back as Bourbonnais, the Bears ended each training-camp practice with the chant of "world champs!" In that stifling July heat, the concept came across as, well, hallucinatory.

But Muhammad has been to a Super Bowl with Carolina. He knows. And this isn't a case of a veteran receiver going front-runner on everybody. Muhammad, after all, was the one talking doubters off the ledge when the Bears fell to 1-3.

"We believed in each other," Muhammad said. "We lost two tough games (to Washington and Cleveland), but we learned about ourselves in those losses. You almost want to get the bad losses out of the way early so you have that bitter taste in your mouth the rest of the season. We built character. We learned how to win games."

If the Bears make it to Detroit's Ford Field for an unexpected second time this season--in February for the Super Bowl--everybody knows the defense will have to lead them. Sunday's eight-sack performance opened more eyes than those of Carolina quarterback Jake Delhomme.

But the league's No. 1-ranked defense has consistently caused pressure, if not made plays. A team can't go 27 straight possessions without giving up a touchdown, as the Bears have done, without contributions from many areas.

Overall, the Bears have yielded only nine touchdowns all season, and three over their opponents' last 78 possessions. Perhaps this is what prompted veteran Panthers defensive tackle Brentson Buckner to declare the Bears' defense the best he has seen in his 12 years in the league.

While showing appreciation for a player of Buckner's stature offering such an assessment, coach Lovie Smith downplayed the compliment, as well as comparisons to dominant defenses from the Bears' past.

"It helps when other people acknowledge what you knew all along," Smith said. "But as a team, we didn't all of a sudden start thinking, `Now we're good.' If you talk to the players, they've been saying the same thing for quite a while. We're a good team. But you have to go out and prove it.

"We haven't done enough right now to expect people to give us a lot of respect. When you've been down for a long time, you have to earn it. The way you earn it is to continue to win and take care of each team on our schedule."

That one-game-at-a-time approach, while a cliche, also is compatible for a fairly young team. The players' reaction to the Carolina victory ranged from chip-on-the-shoulder crowing to matter-of-fact musings about not being surprised.

No player looked beyond Sunday's game.

"I know one thing: We play Tampa Bay next Sunday at Tampa," linebacker Brian Urlacher said Sunday afternoon, before Tampa Bay beat Atlanta. "I don't know what they did today. I don't care. All I know is we play them next week."

This approach is why Smith said he isn't worried about a team unaccustomed to success freaking out in the spotlight or needing bigger helmets. His even-keeled approach has rubbed off on his team, and if players lose sight of that briefly, a second straight game against an NFC South leader will help them refocus.

"We have enough veteran leadership on the team that we don't feel [overconfidence] will be a problem," Smith said. "This is a part of having success. You have to handle it. The more you win, the more people will come around and start asking about our team. That's a good thing for our guys.

"They've played well to get ourselves in position. That's the only thing you want for your team--to be in position for this November and December run where you're in the race. And we're definitely in the race."

The race is against 2005 opponents, not Super Bowl champions from 20 years past or franchise defensive records from the same era.

"During the year, comparing doesn't matter an awful lot," Smith said. "Just look at our team. We were supposed to be the worst football team as we started the season. We won a few and were a little bit better. What does it really mean in between? After it's all said and done, I'm anxious to see exactly where our defense stands and where we are as a team."

So is Muhammad and everybody else no longer sitting at the kids' table.